Other requisites

Students will require access to e-mail and have internet access to UConnect for this course.

Synopsis

Ethnography is the principle research tool of Anthropology, in addition to fields as diverse as education, geography, business, heritage studies, tourism, and cultural studies. We find out about things through research; it provides answers to questions about ourselves, other people, and the wider world. Social research collectively is research which is carried out to provide answers to questions about people and the social and cultural settings and systems which they participate in, telling us about differing social and cultural worlds. Ethnographic research is characterised by the central role of the researcher and the use of multiple methods of data collection, involving participant observation and interaction to describe people and their cultures and societies, both in the contemporary world and in the past. This is done so that we may come to understand people's behaviour, and its origins and effects, as well as revealing the qualities and meanings which people attach to themselves, to other people, and to the things in the world around them. It arrives at this understanding not only by measuring phenomena, but also by talking to and observing people, and by studying their cultural and social products, the documents and artefacts which they create. All of these are considered within the contexts of wider social and cultural settings. This holistic framework allows enquiry into the depth, richness, and complexity of human behaviour, understanding, and experience. This course allows students to experience and gain awareness of these important means of coming to acquire accurate knowledge of humans and their creations.